


The Wonders Of Family

by TheYaoiChick



Category: One Piece
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, I'll take Complicated Feelings and Hopeless Thoughts for 1500 please, Introspection, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24608983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheYaoiChick/pseuds/TheYaoiChick
Summary: Garp muses on his family after Ace's death, and wonders where it all went wrong.
Relationships: Monkey D. Dragon & Monkey D. Garp, Monkey D. Garp & Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	The Wonders Of Family

Sometimes, not often enough for anyone to notice and not often enough to where he could in any way he considered _thoughtful,_ he just sits back and wonders how did he get to this point. Not his job, though after Ace he wonders at the state of the world... Not to the point he regrets joining the Marines. He won't ever regret that, and he knows he changed more than a few people's lives just by virtue of taking down the scum who think that just because they might have _strength_ that gives them the right to take whatever they damn well please. And that for all the... less _virtuous_ aspects of the job, mostly relating to the Celestial Dragons and all the hell they're allowed to rain down on people with no consequences to speak of... even with that, he knows the world _needs_ the Marines to protect them. Even if they couldn't protect them from the biggest danger they're ever likely to face in their lives.

But... for all that he doesn't regret his job nor his dedication to it, he does regret the fact that it so often tore him from his family. That he missed a lot of Dragon growing up. To say nothing of Luffy and Ace. And even Sabo, who he'd seen _maybe_ four times but left such a significant impact on Luffy and Ace, who became their _brother_ , meant he was Garp's grandson too. His responsibility. And he failed him as much as he's failed the rest of his family.

Maybe if he had just _been_ there more, none of them would have taken the path they had chosen. Luffy wouldn't have met that redhaired brat Shanks and wouldn't have been taken in on those glamorous lies him and his crew had no doubt filled his mind with on the pirate life style. Sabo would be alive, he would have _been_ on the island when the Celestial Dragons had visited and could have swam and saved him. Or, at the very least, have given the boys a body to mourn over and given the child a proper burial. Ace would be alive, and safe with both his brothers giving him the love he longed so hard for.. Dragon and Luffy wouldn't be constantly fighting for their lives as the Marines sent heavier and heavier hitters after them. Hell, had he just saved Dragon, Luffy wouldn't have been in danger simply for being _born!_

Time. It all feels like there wasn't enough _time._ Mission after mission dragged him out to the Grand Line, the boys got older in the blink of an eye and then they were gone before he could so much as think of trying another Fist of Love to show them the error of their ways.

Though he knew that should anyone ask Dadan, and as long as he wasn't around to hear the answer, she would happily say that lost time was his fault. That he should have come back more -- or at least called or sent a letter or _something_ \-- if he wanted to influence what kind of decisions they would make. Flat out told him he should have said to hell with his career and beat Akainu to a bloody pulp the very second it looked like he would succeed in killing either Ace or Luffy. That -- regardless of the fact this was the life _they_ choose knowing the damn risks! -- he should have thrown it all away in a heartbeat.

**_Dammit!_** There aren't any right answers here.

Because if he had stayed... hundreds of people would have been killed during pirate raids. If he had stayed, there's still no guarantee that those knuckle headed boys wouldn't have found the strangest desire to become pirates anyway, and it wasn't as if he could sit on the three of them 24/7 for the rest of their lives.

And as for stopping Akainu... well. That would have only landed a target on all three of their backs. And as strong as he is, as much as they call him a _hero,_ and for all that he's faced Roger and Shiki and Whitebeard and countless other seemingly unbeatable pirates.... he's well aware that he's just a man. He can't fight off all those Marines -- doesn't even _want_ to seeing as this is what they're **supposed** to do! -- along with the warlords and the pirates who would undoubtedly see it as some sort of trick.

No. All interfering would have accomplished is more of their family dead. Possibly all _three_ of them dead, despite the desperate attempts on both brothers part to save each other. No. It would have only given them another problem. Another person they feel obligated to save.

Just like going after the Celestial Dragons after they killed Sabo would have only resulted in their entire island being destroyed in a fit of petty rage. Hundreds of people -- _innocent people_ \-- dead. And all for **nothing.** Because those damn stains on the Earth all have so much security that he'd have to kill even _more_ innocent people to so much as get close to them.

And in moments like this, those rare moments of weakness that thankfully never leave the sanction of his own head, that he agrees with Dragon that this world needs a serious overhaul. If only it didn't cause such fatal chaos to _normal, innocent civilians!_ Why should they have to pay for whats wrong with this world? Why should their lives be placed in danger because the government and those that control it aren't perfect? Being dragged into a war not only with their own respective governments, no Dragon isn't satisfied with that. He has them fight their own government, the World Government, defy the Celestial Dragons whenever possible...

All it leads to is madness and torn families. Blood shed among war torn islands among common criminals who siege control and fan the flames of the chaos for their own ends. Suffering upon suffering upon suffering. With no end in sight. Why should they have to pay the price of the choices his family has made? Why should he have forsaken saving them, when his family is part of the reason they're in danger? When his family would have been the ones in danger had he managed to convince any of them to take the righteous path?

No right answer. No sure solution. No magic formula that would have people make the right choice, the _safer_ choice, or to get rid of annoying emotions of guilt for things he couldn't control. No matter how much he wanted to. No matter how hard he tried.

And what makes it worse? He knows that one day, Dragon and Luffy both are he'll bound for the same fate. Now, whether he'll be alive when that happens remains to be seen. He at least has the semi-guarantee that he at least won't have to be at the battle field, at the execution when it happens now that he's retired. At least he won't have the nightmares of how their last breath was spent right in his face and endless guilt on not being able to do a damn thing to stop it. But still. It hurts to know that their family will end with Luffy. The Monkey line is over, and nothing will come to show for it. Nothing but wanted papers and whatever treasure Luffy manages to collect over the years that would be swiped up by either Luffy's crew, the Marines, or the government. Which ever gets there first.

_sigh._ He could think this around in circles for the rest of his life. No answers are going to come. The guilt isn't going to disappear.

He supposed all he could do... is live on and hope in the end the good he's done outweighed the mistakes he's made.

In the end.... That's really all any to them could do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos, comments and bookmarks make my day!


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